Good call, I'm sure people on the west coast would love seeing the Sharks play at 12 in the afternoon, joke.

Starting Sabourin=Stupid

And don't give me this crap that the back-up needs to be sharp, does Marty Brodeur's back-up need to be sharp? Fact is, if Fleury's not healthy for the playoffs, this team ain't going anywhere regardless and if Fleury goes down with an injury for an extended period, the Pens will trade for another goalie. He's an elite goalie, and needs to be played as such.

I'm curious to see who the staff goes with tonight to go up against Hacksaw.

Starting Sabourin=Stupid

I agree with your point about Fleury being an elite goaltender and someone who should be played as such...but I remember how Sabu played the last time you said this, so I'm glad to be seeing you say it again.

I feel like starting Sabourin was good for the game against Boston, but starting him again this soon might be preventing Fleury from getting into the groove of things. Maybe? But then again I'm an 18-year-old writing major, not a pro hockey coach.

"we are forgetting that Sabu played great in his last game. Gotta give him some love."

No, I didn't forget, what's your point? Kevin Weekes played really well in a game subbing for Brodeur last year, did he start again within like 2 months? No. It's his job as a backup to perform admirably when the number 1 needs a rest. Therrien needs to take the Scotty Bowman approach, "Great game back-up, see you in a month". I can't stand when Therrien does this shit.

@carroll from the last post-omg i just got home and watched your video.... and was completly mesmorized by pouring milk from a bag... i'll add this to the ever growing list of things i've learned from tPB

regardless of how Sabu does tonight...he should play 15-18 games this year in order to keep MAF fresh for the playoffs....at this 10 game point...MAF is on pace to play 66 games, Sabu: 16.

looking at the 3 game Clarance Campbell Conference swing...SJ, PHX, STL...I think the best chances for W's would be in PHX & STL...I don't mind HCMT rolling the dice with Sabu tonight, since the Sharks are returning back to the Tank to play their NHL cliched: First home game after a [insert proper geographical location here] Coast trip.

ok, the sharks are something like 6-0 against the pens in the last 6.you start sabou against the team you have less of a chance to win against, that way, if he has a good game, its a bonus, if not, whatev.

then you play your stronger goalie against the weaker team. that way, you have a greater chance of coming out of the next two games with at least 2 points.

p.s. i always get a smile when im out and about in a jersey or something and i catch someone using "pensblog speak" a simple "buries it" or "jobber"... maybe even a "free candy" or something. and its like we're brothers in that instant that i call them on being a pensblog reader. thank you for existing. GO PENS!

Staff: Since we're now talking wagering, take the Preds over the Caps at +110 and the Under at 5.5. No Ovechkin tonight = the Caps are lost, and Dan Ellis isn't as bad as his numbers this year. Oh, and Brent Johnson is starting for the Caps tonight.

"Errey: "You know Vlasic's nickname is 'Pickles'..."Steiggy: "I like the Vlasic pickles, do you?"Errey: I'm not into the dill, I'm into the sweet ones."Steiggy: "You like the pickle stabbing, I know that!"Errey: "Can you imagine if Vlasic actually pickle stabbed one into the net today? That would be huge!""

I don't mind giving Sabu the start tonight. Kind of related to what nu posted above, I don't know if this is indicative of any sort of trend, but...

2007-08: Six goaltenders played 70 or more reg. season games for their teams. Miller (76 games) and Luongo (73) never got to the postseason (although it's not fair to pin that just on the goaltenders). Brodeur (77) and Kipper (76) were out in the first round. Lundqvist (72) and Nabokov (77) went out in the second round. Lundqvist clearly was not himself in the series against the Pens, and I thought Brodeur looked tired in their first-round series loss.

2006-07: Five goaltenders hit 70 or more reg. season games. Brodeur (78) bowed out in the second round of the playoffs, as did Luongo (76) and Lundqvist (70). Kiprusoff (74) lost in the first round. Raycroft (72) couldn't get Toronto into the postseason.

2005-06: Only three goalies play 70 or more games. Luongo (75 games) fails to get Florida to the playoffs. Kiprusoff (74 games) bows out in the first round. Brodeur (73 games) lasts until the second round.

2003-04: Four goalies hit the 70-game plateau - Brodeur, Turco, Vokoun (with Nashville) and Luongo. Brodeur's Devils lose in the first round to Philly. Turco exits in the first round as well, as do Vokoun's Predators. No playoffs for Luongo.

It's just four seasons and there are other factors outside of games played by goaltenders to consider there. But given that little bit of recent history, I'd be comfortable if MAF settles in somewhere around 63-66 starts.

Saying Fleury is an elite goaltender and then saying he needs to get into a groove are contradictory. If he's an elite goaltender, he should not need to get into a groove. OOO i forgot that Fleury is sensitive and Therrien not playing him will hurt his feelings and that will affect his play. Typical of an elite goaltender.

Stop getting on Sabu, and Therrien for that matter.

Any choice Therrien makes he gets chewed out for it, when it worked pretty well last year. There's a reason for him playing Sabu tonight, and Therrien gets paid for just that, taking notice of his players and deciding what to do from there.

Anyway, if Fleury plays like he has been and Sabu can come in and keep his save% above .910 we are in great shape this year. And tonight is all about defense. Tonight is about J.R. getting some free candy. Pens win 4-2.

Malone made it perfectly clear that he'd rather get paid than win, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing. This is his livelihood and he had a chance to set himself, his wife, his kids and probably his grandkids up for life.

If I was in his spot, I can't say it's what I would've done, but I wasn't in his spot.

It's pretty nice, though, when you can make what may be a bad career decision and still have $31 million to use to wipe away your tears of regret.

OK so I was listening to MM the other day and a caller asked about Ilya Kovalchuck. MM said that if the Thrashers do with him what they did with Hossa we should get him, for staal/picks/other players and come free agency we should do whatever it takes to pay him, most likey close to the same as Sid and Malkin, and dump whoever we need to make cap space.

Well, after that I made a point to watch the Flyers Thrashers game so I could just stare at him all game and dream about what it would be like if he was with the Pens.And I've come to a conclusion, Mark Madden is indeed a super-genius. Kovalchuck can shoot as we all know, but a couple times already this game he has set up players very nicely, and if he were playing with better players(i.e. Malkin or Crosby) he would kick so much ass it isn't even funny. I'm talking 50+ goals 50+ assists easy.

as for kovalchuk tonight's game may be a reason to worry about him. yes, ATL really doesn't have anything but Kovalchuk & Lehtonen, and maybe its because he has no one else around him, but he seriously needs to stand up and say something. i mean, where exactly has he been tonight?

What do you want him to do? He can't make Lehtonen play better. He can't make his team not give up like 18 PP goals. He can't help that Waddel thinks adding Hainsley makes them any better of a team than last season. And you can't expect anyone to get a goal ever game.He's made the passes to lead to goals, but there is no one to finish them.

As far as Bugsy goes Cyndi Lauper said it best:"Money changes everything."

...of course she also said, "Well, who can you trust? / I'll tell you it's just / Nobody else's money." ;)

For anyone in the "he'll be sorry" camp, Bucci @ESPN is generally kind of an idiot even if he is a Pens homer, but he did say Malone's gonna regret that contract for the rest of his life/career.

Here's a bright idea: how about this be the year where we DON'T need to make a ridiculous splashy trade that will send us to cap hell, and the team just proves we can win with what we've got? (Y'know, like our 2 top-3 NHL forwards, our grown-up goalie, our wait-this-is-a-Penguins-team?-defense...) Just for variety's sake.

(I feel bad for the Thrash; they really need something to turn them around. Not to have their carcass picked.)

"Saying Fleury is an elite goaltender and then saying he needs to get into a groove are contradictory. If he's an elite goaltender, he should not need to get into a groove. OOO i forgot that Fleury is sensitive and Therrien not playing him will hurt his feelings and that will affect his play. Typical of an elite goaltender."

You know nothing about the position of playing goal, absolutely nothing. That's one of the most blatantly ignorant posts I've seen on here.

Holy shit, they just showed a preview of The Office and Creed is dressed as Ledger's Joker. "Let's put a smiiile on that faaace..."Fuckin' Awesome

Speaking of Madden, on monday he was talking about Santonio's arrest, and the story goes that Rob Rossi was in the Penguins locker room talking to Sidney last friday, and Sid was wondering why there weren't alot of journalists in the locker room. Rossi informed him that Holmes did them a favor and got busted driving in the Hill district with weed. Sid then asked Rossi, "Oh...Was he on his way to the (Penguins) game?" Whether that was said tongue in cheek or not, it's Fuckin' Hilarious

Yet another example to hate Philly fans, from the Post-Gazette:Joe Maddon has enjoyed some good-natured ribbing about beer and baseball with fans behind the Rays' dugout.

The Tampa Bay manager, though, was angered when some of that notorious bad behavior by the Philadelphia fans surfaced in Games 3 and 4. Maddon said family members of players and other members of Tampa Bay's organization have been verbally harassed by Phillies fans. He said some Phillies fans even threw mustard packets from the concession stands at his granddaughter.

"I know it's been well documented. I've attended events here as a fan myself," said Maddon, raised about 100 miles outside Philadelphia. "But when it strikes home at your family, then you have to say something. I think somebody has to make a stand at some point."

I was listening to Hockey Night in Canada on my Sirius the other day and they made a really good point about the salary cap and the economy sucking. If I were a GM I wouldn't count on the cap going up. Hell they might even reduce the cap if it gets bad enough.

No I don't think there will be any huge moves at the deadline, unless a team would like to be raped by the cap next season.

So I say no to a move for Kovalchuk. Of course I'm a computer joke and not an NHL GM.

Many of us said during the summer here that Oren and Lennie were making a mockery of that club with the circus act they put on this summer in free agency and at the draft.

They approached free agency the same way my nephew does with his NHL '09 dynasty on his XBox 360 - throw a bunch of money at as many somewhat recognizable names as possible. The big difference between the two is that my nephew is eleven years old and doesn't understand how a salary cap works. Koules and Barrie should've known better.

And what are they doing to Stamkos? That kid was almost as much of a "duhhhh" pick in the 2008 Draft as Crosby was in the 2005 Draft. Why do you make the kid the center of your marketing campaign and then play him 11 minutes a night, especially when you consider that Mark Fucking Recchi is getting 14:30 a night?

Is Stamkos just not ready? Then send him back to juniors...oh wait, it might be too late for that. If Stamkos isn't ready, they shouldn't have made him the centerpiece of their marketing campaign. If he IS ready and just isn't playing...well, then the coach is an idiot wrapped in a moron.

Speaking of which...

The Melrose hiring was beyond short-sighted. It's shaping up to be nothing more than a PR stunt, and even that might be an insult to PR stunts everywhere, as rumors are beginning to circulate that Melrose may be losing or may have lost the respect of some of the veterans in that room.

Melrose was in way over his head when he coached in Los Angeles more than a decade ago. During his three years there, he had Gretzky, Kurri, Robitaille (Luc, not Randy), Tocchet, Granato (Tony, not Cammi) and a young Rob Blake at his disposal, and the clown managed to miss the playoffs twice in three years.

They obliterated a situation with a potential franchise-caliber defenseman in Dan Boyle, then dealt him to San Jose for a much younger but mostly less talented version of himself - Matt Carle.

They put themselves in potential cap hell with Malone's contract and so far have one goal in seven games to show for it. But hey, he's leading the team in penalty minutes. Yay. Obviously Malone will be fine, but the fact is that Tampa likely paid $31 million over the next five or six years to figure out what we already knew - Malone will max out somewhere around 25 goals and 50 points.

Maybe it all pans out for Tampa once these guys get used to playing together. But they haven't done much so far to set the world on fire.

I have to admit that I would love to see a sniper like Kovalchuk on Crosby's wing. Highly unlikely, but I'll have some fun with this.

He's under contract through 2009-10 and would be just about the same cap hit as Gaborik ($6.3M, methinks). The Pens would need to clear about that much cap room to pick him up, and that feat would be infinitely easier if Whitney and/or Gonchar were healthy because then you'd have what's called a plethora of defensemen.

A what?

A plethora.

...

...

Oh yes, you have a plethora.

Sorry.

That said, they ain't and only Whit projects to be back before Deadline Day. And who knows how long it'll take him to round into game shape and make himself maybe a little marketable (or to prove that it's worth trading Goligoski or Legame)?

The fact that Gonchar's $5M will be coming off the salary cap books the same time that Kovalchuk would be due for an extension might make it easier to extend Kovalchuk.

Consider, too, that Shero has proven fairly capable so far of filling some of those top-line wing spots with decent veteran players on short-term deals (Sykie, Satan, Fedo, etc.), and those kind of moves can be used to provide scoring depth.

And let's not forget that Shero may not even need to go that route all that often, as we may be getting contributions from the next wave of young forwards as early as next season (Caputi, Jeffrey, Pierro-Zabotel).

Chances are slim that we'd ever see it, but it might not be all that far-fetched.

If Staal puts up numbers similar to last year's, how much can he expect to get paid? You can't be shelling out $5 million a season to a defensive-minded center who chips in 20 & 20, can you? Considering that they cut off talks about an extension makes me wonder if #11 and his agent will feel they're entitled to more than he is worth...

kstewy i don't expect him to carry the whole team, but when his team gets down its almost like he gets down too easily and can take some dumb penalties when he gets frustrated. and other times he's really silent until the final moments when he tries to take things over when of course its too late. again, he may just be frustrated cause there is not much to ATL, but i wish i heard more about him doing something as a leader on the ice than just being like lehtonen and praying that soon the contract is up.